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The Many faces of Manipulation
I know what it is like to be manipulated and to use manipulation to get what I want. It is not something I am proud of. I am especially not proud of using manipulation as a tool.
Samson was the original “Riddler”. I wonder if while they were writing this character into Batman if they were thinking about Samson. Samson used riddles to manipulate people and it is ironic that he was brought down by a few manipulative woman.
Our Biblical Ground Work: Judges 14-16
Samson’s wife would be the start of Samson’s God given assignment to “begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5). He wanted her and he got her but he would regret it afterwards. Many people were killed and much anguish for the Israelites resulted in this unhealthy union filled with manipulation.
His need for sex put him in another vulnerable situation with a prostitute. He saw her is Gaza and went into her. Somehow the Gazites got notified (wink, wink) of his presence and they surrounded the house waiting for him. He slept until mid-night and broke the city gates down, carried them on his shoulders and dropped them on the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron. This left them in a vulnerable situation.
Finally we come to Delilah. We say that she was his downfall but he was his downfall. Sex again was his weakness but his time it went further for him, he fell in love with Delilah. She was paid by the five Philistine leaders 1,100 pieces of silver each (approx. $110,000.00). She was probably given a choice, money or death. She chose the money and began her manipulative plan to earn it.
Our Biblical Life Lesson: To avoid being manipulated avoid being a manipulator.
Samson’s downfall was that he thought he was the master manipulator and could not recognize that he himself was being manipulated. Pride was his downfall. He was manipulated by three women and he manipulated everyone in his path including God.
Manipulators are so proud of their persuasive skills that they think they cannot be manipulated themselves but due to their pride they have a blindness to someone manipulating them. A determined manipulator will use whatever tool they think will work and they are not adverse to picking up new tools to get what they want.
Join The Bible Gals this week as we learn the Biblical Power Tools to avoid manipulation.
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The Amazing Vision for Samson’s Mother
My first vision from God was not a burning 🔥 bush moment nor was it from an Angel of the Lord appearing before me. It was simply a picture of what is to come. A two dimensional picture followed by many years of shifting my direction to walk in it.
That is why I love reading these amazing stories of God Himself appearing 💦 before people in the Bible. They show me the possibility of my own story. The evidence of my own vision from God becoming a reality.
Our Biblical Ground Work: Judges 13
The wife of Manoah was barren and the Angel of the Lord ✝️ appeared to her to tell her she is barren but will bear a son. The Angel gave her instructions in what she should do during her pregnancy because this boy would be a Nazarite from conception.
After the Angel was gone she went to tell her husband what had happened. She describe Him as a Man of God with the countenance of the Angel of God 🌟🌟 very awesome 🌟🌟 but that is all she knows. She did not get His Name or ask where He was from.
Manoah asked God to allow Him to return and God listened to Him. As his wife was sitting in the field again the Angel of God came to her. This time she ran and retrieved Manoah.
Manoah questioned Him and was told the whole vision again by the Angel of the Lord. He believed and wanted to worship the Angel when the vision became reality. The Angel shifted Manoah’s direction toward 🔀 God and as he obediently gave to the Lord, he was rewarded with a vision he will never forget.
Our Biblical Life Lesson: The Rewards of shifting our direction are not always tangible but will always be memorable.
If you look at my life, and probably other women’s lives, you would not call us successful but we have rewarding lives. We might have been barren in our own eyes of the visible fruit of God. We have not had that burning bush experience when God tells us what we are going to do in understandable English. There have been small victories 🥳 that got us just a bit closer to our vision than yesterday because we shifted our direction just a hair.
I don’t know why Manoah’s wife was sitting out in the field those two times but when I am sitting out in the field, I feel like I am watching seeds grow. Watching something grow is pain staking and slow. More than once I have gotten up from my seat to plant something faster growing, only to end up back in the field watching the original seeds 🌱 grow again.
With almost every amazing story in the Bible 📖, waiting on the Lord’s plan to grow in you takes just a small shift in direction and obedience to that direction. Just as Manoah and his wife received a great reward, you will reap great reward as well. It may not have been tangible but it will be something they will have NEVER 🤩 forgotten.
Join The Bible Gals here to discuss the 3 Biblical Power Tools for shifting your direction toward Jesus.
